Day Six

4/6

The Book: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.

ISBN: 978-0-440-41832-0

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn, Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 8:30-9:10P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 346-399 (53)

The Lead In: This project is quickly becoming a priority. This is a good thing. I knew I would finish this book tonight and am excited to be moving onto another. It’s the first stepping stone on the path to 365.

The 411 on the 55: Iorek shows up and, predictably, kills the bear, becoming the king of the bears. From there, the bears take Roger, who Iorek brought with him to the fight, and Lyra to Lord Asriel who is up in the hills doing experiments on Dust and such.

After Lyra falls asleep, Asriel, in a twist I didn’t see coming, kidnaps Roger and takes him into the mountains to sever him from his daemon, which releases massive amounts of power. Power Asriel needs to get to the other worlds he had seen in the North. By the time Lyra catches up, Asriel is about to do the deed and, try as she might, Lyra does not manage to stop him.

The book ends with Lyra deciding to follow her father into the other world to track down dust, ditching Roger in the snow.

The 20/20: I enjoyed The Golden Compass. It was well-written, fast-paced, and laced with preachy bits that, while annoying at some points, were thought-provoking. A good piece of children’s fiction should do that: Make you think, but entertain you. Now that I think about it, I guess all good fiction should do that.

Line of the Day: “Humans can’t see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That’s original sin. And I’m going to destroy it. Death is going to die.” pg 377

The Fact on the Fiction: According to Goodreads.com, The Golden Compass has been rated a 4 or higher (out of 5) by 73% of people that rated it. Goodreads